


You're The Universe I'm Helpless In

by thehazelverse



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Bad Pick-Up Lines, Fluff, M/M, Mild Language, Museums, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-03 23:57:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6632257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thehazelverse/pseuds/thehazelverse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>After a few weeks in the job, Oikawa figures out that Sugawara visits the museum regularly, and it’s always at noon</i>
  <br/>
  <i>He admits that yes, he is being a little bit childish about all this-  avoiding Sugawara because what, he’s scared? There’s nothing scary about him at all.</i>
  <br/>
  <i>Which is why he decides to leave a note for Sugawara one day...<i></i></i>
</p><p>
  <i>
    <i> (for the prompt ‘Messages’ from OiSuga Weekend Day 2: Mercury)</i>
  </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're The Universe I'm Helpless In

**Author's Note:**

> here's my first contribution to the oisuga tag!! I love this ship a lot and I've had so many fic plans for them, but I've always ended up scraping them :( I'm so glad I finally have a finished fic for this ship now!!
> 
> I hope you enjoy and any comments/feedback would be very much appreciated!! <3
> 
> (the title of the fic comes from the song Venus by Sleeping At Last.. I just _had_ to pick a space themed title for this fic XD

With his first year of university over, Oikawa was starting to get desperate for a summer job. He thought it would be simple -just a smile and a bit of charisma, and the first interview would be in the bag- but when is anything ever that easy?

After his fifth try at a job, Oikawa finally gets an immediate reply from the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo, regarding a summer job in the gift shop. It could have been a lot worse- he could've got a reply back from that fast food restaurant that were looking for night shift staff and taken that job instead. The job at the Museum has much better hours for him, as well as better wages. Maybe he'll even get a discount on the cool space-themed souvenirs.

On his first day, the manager teaches him the basics, like how to work the till and where to find everything in the small shop. He even gets a tour round the museum, even though he visited a couple of times when he was kid.

The place hasn’t changed much. There’s still plenty of old telescopes and other antique items, as well as a room dedicated to the animal kingdom, filled with slightly creepy stuffed animals that used to freak Oikawa out when he was younger. While walking through the exhibit, he sticks his tongue out at the bald eagle perched on a fake tree while his manager is looking the other way. Those pesky animals don’t scare him now.

“Okay, I think that’s everything you need to know,” says Oikawa’s new manager, snapping his attention away from the eagle. “Do you have any questions?”

“No, I think I’ve got everything thanks,” he replies with a smile and thinks about how this job might not be so bad after all. 

 

Oikawa first sees him in the far corner of the gift shop by the coffee machine.

Back in high school, when they were on the court, Oikawa saw Sugawara Koushi as someone to beat, one of the many members of Karasuno that stood victorious on the other side of the court while Seijou held back their tears. It's kind of a shock to see him now in casual clothes, carrying a hot paper cup of coffee to the gift shop counter. 

Luckily, Oikawa is not manning the till today, so instead he watches curiously from behind a stand of children's books about the solar system as Sugawara takes his wallet from his jeans pocket and hands over a note to the cashier. Oikawa watches the whole exchange with narrowed eyes, right until Sugawara leaves the shop and walks through the Museum doors.

It would be a lie for him to say he hadn’t thought about Sugawara once or twice since the Interhighs ended. And yes, he would admit that Sugawara’s name stuck in his head, while many other members from Karasuno still stayed their numbers or positions in Oikawa’s mind. He doesn’t really know why Mr. Refreshing himself stood out so much among the others. Maybe because he was a setter, or maybe because he was Tobio-chan’s new senpai. Either way it shouldn’t really matter to him- it's not like Sugawara will be coming back to the museum any time soon.

 

The second time he sees Sugawara is in the planets room- Oikawa’s favorite part of the whole museum. There’s a bench in the centre of the round room where he sits with a notepad and pen in his hands, looking up at the constellations scattering the ceiling. Oikawa wonders what he’s writing down in that brown, leather-bound book, but more specifically, he wonders why Sugawara visits the museum so often. Does he study astronomy? That was actually a course Oikawa considered for a while, but decided his passion for space wasn’t quite strong enough.

He shakes his head and walks away from the planets room, leaving Sugawara completely unaware of his presence. He has a job to do, and that’s replace the tourist information leaflets on the stand at the front door; not gawk at people he doesn’t even know that well as they sit there looking pretty. If Sugawara wants to spend his time in a museum for fun then that’s up to him, no matter how much it appears that Sugawara visits Oikawa’s work. 

After a few weeks, Oikawa figures out that Sugawara visits the museum regularly, and it’s always at noon. He sits on the bench in the planets room for around an hour, writing god knows what, then makes his way to the gift shop to buy a coffee and leaves. It boggles Oikawa, but at least he’s figured out Sugawara’s routine so he can do everything to _avoid_ him.

He admits that yes, he is being a little bit childish about all this- avoiding Sugawara because what, he’s scared? There’s nothing scary about him at all. Which is why he decides to leave a note for Sugawara one day, right before noon at his usual spot on the wooden bench.

 _‘Hey. Let me orbit around that ass’_ may not be his best pickup line but that’s _exactly_ why he’s using it on Suga. It’s not like he’s wanting to impress him or anything. It’s all a bit of fun- a prank to make Sugawara flustered. Oikawa will get a laugh out of watching his reaction and that will be that.

He hides behind the double doors on the left side of the planets room and watches Sugawara walk in the opposite side, briefly looking at his phone then placing it in his backpack to take out his notebook. Oikawa’s note lies there, waiting to be read and when Sugawara finally notices it, he looks at it curiously. Sweaty hands grip the wooden doors as Oikawa watches Sugawara read the note once, twice, then a third time. He looks confused, much to Oikawa’s delight, until he starts to look around the room at all the planets and stars, covering the walls floor to ceiling. When his eyes glance over to the door, Oikawa jumps back so that he’s out of sight- his heart pounds strangely in his chest at the thought of being seen.

He stands there for a while, wondering whether to stay and take another peek to see if Sugawara has been scared off or get back to doing his job. He decides to get on with the task of reorganising the window display in the gift shop instead. The minute Sugawara walks down the hall to get his afternoon coffee, Oikawa quickly excuses himself to go on his break but not before he briefly checks the planets room to find a page torn out of a notebook, folded up neatly on the bench.

The handwriting on the note is quite hard to read, but Oikawa can still understand what it says. _‘Orbit around my ass, huh? Are you trying to suggest that it’s big enough to be a planet? Because that’s definitely not the right way to charm anyone. Please pick a better pickup line next time.’_

Giggling to himself, Oikawa stands there and realises just how much of a mess he’s got himself into. 

 

And so it continues on like this- messages exchanged back and forth on pages of a Moleskine notebook bound in brown leather, under a painted diagram of the solar system and the stars surrounding it. By some strange miracle, Oikawa still hasn’t been spotted by Sugawara at all and it’s only now that he’s starting to wonder if that’s a good thing or not. 

It only takes a couple of notes for Oikawa to realise Sugawara is actually a bit of a joker himself, in his own subtle way. Their exchanges always make him laugh and are the highlight of his day to the point where he starts to miss hearing from Sugawara on his days off. He wonders if it’s sad that this is what his life has become. Flirting with the girls at school had been easy, and it’s not like he’s lost his confidence since then. He knows he can score a date with any person at a party if he tries hard enough. 

What made Sugawara any different?

Oikawa shakes his head to get rid of any further dangerous thoughts and jots down the last of the note he’s going to leave in the planets room. This time he’s going to ask Sugawara what he’s actually writing in that notebook of his, and why he always does so in here.

He walks back into the gift shop to watch over the till for a while so his colleague can take a break. Her name is Kaori, and Oikawa has never met anyone more happy to be working at a museum on a tuesday morning. She waves goodbye to the customer with a bright smile then sends one Oikawa’s way too. There’s no longer any visitors in the giftshop, so they’re free to talk for a while in peace. 

“Hey Oikawa-san! What’s up?” She asks cheerfully.

“Oh not much, just the usual you know?” He spins a globe of the earth that's on display around on its axis as he talks. “Work, catching up with old school friends- you know, the usual.”

“That’s nice,” she says, but it looks like she wants to ask something else so Oikawa waits. “Oikawa-san, why do you always sneak off to the planets room during your shift? Does it have anything to do with the fact you won’t serve customers at one o’clock?”

Oikawa scoffs, but starts to sweat all the same. Kaori is looking at him like she knows, but wants to make Oikawa confess- or rather, she wants to make him suffer, but that’s only what his brain is telling him. She continues to look at him curiously, with her head tilted to one side like an owl.

“Absolutely not! What would make you think that?” He tries to make himself sound as casual as possible but it doesn’t seem to be working. Kaori just smiles innocently at him and tells him there’s no reason, but Oikawa knows better. He gestures for her to leave her spot at the till so he can stand there instead- it’s his way of saying _no more questions,_ which Kaori is more than happy to oblige to. It is her break now after all, so she starts to walk out the shop to the break room upstairs. He draws out a sigh of relief as she leaves. 

“Oh look, coffee boy has arrived early!” He hears Kaori call from the gift shop entrance, and he almost knocks a jar of museum badges off the till counter. Kaori has never talked about “coffee boy” before, but he’s _sure_ he knows who it is. Who else buys their cheap, machine brewed coffee enough to earn a name like that?

He tries to run to Kaori to get her back on the till but she’s already walking down the hall to the staff door. “Sorry Oikawa-san, but I’ve gotta go on my break,” she says, not sounding sorry at all. “See ya later!”

Grumbling to himself, Oikawa makes his way back to the till and leans down on it with his head in his hands. This is no big deal- all he needs to do is take the money sugawara hands him, give him his change and say goodbye, just like he would with any other customer. Maybe Sugawara doesn’t even remember or recognise him and everything will be okay.

A head of silver hair enters through the shop door and disappears between shelves filled with souvenirs. Oikawa gulps and curses Sugawara for suddenly changing his routine, after keeping it the same for weeks.

The coffee machine is just in lie of sight from the till, so Oikawa watches like a hawk as Sugawara places a plastic cup under it and presses the button for the liquid to pour out. He hitches his backpack up his shoulders so it doesn’t slip off, then puts a puts a lid on the cup once the milk and sugar has been added.

Oikawa isn’t ready for this, but he knows he has to face Sugawara for the sake of his job; it’s not like he can refuse to serve him without the consequence of being fired. Not when his reasonings would be vague and petty to his employers. So he stops pouting to himself and puts on his best fake smile as Sugawara walks up to the till.

 _“Oh!_ Hello, Oikawa.” _So much for not being recognised._ “I didn’t know you worked here.”

Oikawa had already planned two modes of action. The first was to act like he didn’t know Sugawara at all, but that was only if he acted the same, or genuinely couldn’t remember him. The other was to act as casual as possible if Sugawara did show any signs of recognising him. In a way, he’s kind of glad he gets to use the second one.

“Hey, uh.. Sugawara, right?” Trying to act as casual as possible, and for once since this whole ordeal started, he thinks it’s actually working. Maybe his smooth moves haven’t disappeared after all. But still, he’s got to stop acting like this is a crush or something. _I’ve not got a crush on Sugawara,_ he chants in his head.

“Please, just call me Suga. And I can’t believe you remember my name.” He’s already placed his coffee on the counter, but hasn’t made any move to take out his wallet yet. “I surprisingly remember your name, despite the amount of times my old kouhais just called you the Grand King.” 

Sugawara starts to laugh a little and it definitely doesn’t do strange things to Oikawa’s chest. He gets out the words he wants to say but they don’t sound as confident as he felt only seconds ago. “Oh yeah, Tobio-chan and his partner in crime…” He says, but right now he doesn’t really care about them so he changes the subject quickly. “So, what brings you to the museum?”

“Well,” starts Sugawara, scratching the side of his chin with his nail absentmindedly. The side of his mouth quirks up a little. “It’s a long story…”

Oikawa is too busy tracing the curve of Sugawara’s lip to the mole under his right eye, that he almost misses what Sugawara says. Even then, his words still confuse Oikawa. He answers with a _huh?_ and is about to kick himself mentally for his bluntness when it clicks. A long story, a leather bound notebook and hours upon hours spent writing. 

Oikawa knows he's gawping like an idiot right now, but he’s also a little compromised in how to react. If he responds as if he gets the joke, Sugawara will know Oikawa had seen him in the library before and that would just make things awkward. However, it’s a little too late to keep up the impassive attitude he’s been trying to give off. When Sugawara takes a familiar looking piece of paper out his pocket and starts to unfold it, Oikawa holds back a yell. Had Sugawara figured it out?

Sugawara sighs and looks Oikawa in the eyes. “So I know this is going to be a little strange, but I come here every morning, and this person has been leaving me notes and we’ve been writing back and forth for weeks… I know it’s a long shot, but do you know of any people who visit the room with all the planets on the walls around noon? Whoever it is leaves me a note almost every day… And I want to figure out who it is…”

Now Oikawa knows he’s _really_ screwed, so he says the first thing that comes to mind and hopes he doesn’t mess things up even more.

“Have you tried arriving earlier to see if you can catch them?”

“Ah! What a great idea!” Sugawara’s face lights up like Oikawa has just given him the best piece of advice ever. But it's the worst for Oikawa- why did he say that? He can’t let sugawara down and bail on him, but is it really worth it to come in extra early to work, to leave his note and stay anonymous? 

What if he could just fix this mess and just talk to Sugawara, just like he’s doing right now. it would be embarrassing at first, but it wasn’t like he was confessing his love- no matter how many space-themed pickup lines he has written to Sugawara in the past few weeks. Sooner or later he’ll stop visiting the museum, and then what? Oikawa would have no way to see him ever again, other than by chance.

He knows what he has to do, and somehow during his decision making Sugawara has still been talking and thanking him for the good idea. Oikawa listens through it all, not wanting to miss a single word he says and it’s only when Sugawara smiles at him that he wonders if it maybe this is a crush after all. If it is, then somehow he doesn’t feel afraid.

“So, uh.. I don’t mean to be rude, but your coffee has going cold.” Oikawa points to the cup that’s been long forgotten on the counter. As much as he now realises he likes being in Sugawara’s presence, they can't stand here all day being awkward.

“Oh _shit,”_ Sugawara hisses to himself and fumbles for his wallet. “I’m sorry. Usually I just pay and leave, but it was actually nice to see another familiar face! Did you know the girl that’s usually at the till is a manager for the Fukurodani volleyball team? Wait of course you know that- you work together.” He laughs bashfully and hands Oikawa the exact change for the coffee. 

Once he’s closed the till, they share a look. One that says _‘I want to say something, but goodbye doesn’t seem like the right word’_ so instead, Oikawa smiles and says “see you later, Suga.” He’s not wrong.

Sugawara shakes his head. “No offence Oikawa, but it seems like you’re trying to get rid of me.” When Oikawa tries to protest, Sugawara stops him with a chuckle. “I’m only joking, don’t worry. But hopefully I’ll see you around sometime.” He gives a small wave, picks up his coffee and turns toward the museum exit.

When the door closes behind him, Oikawa groans and falls to the floor, as though he’s melting into a puddle. It’s probably really unhygienic down there and and an old lady browsing around the shop rushes over to see if he’s alright. He isn’t. Talking to Sugawara took all the energy out of him and turned him into a babbling fool.

He’s going to have to sort himself out for tomorrow; he’s going to have to swallow his pride and end these notes once and for all. Not before he writes down one more though.

 

When Oikawa stands before Sugawara with an audience of planets and constellations, holding a sheet of paper that only says ‘surprise’ on it in bold letters, he knows all the worrying is worth it when he sees the smile Suga gives him; like Oikawa has taken the moon from the paintings on the wall, and is holding it in his hands- just for Suga.


End file.
